


Victim Into Victory

by orphan_account



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Abuse, Aftermath of Torture, Alternate Universe - Horrortale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Swapfell (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underfell (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underswap (Undertale), Dark, F/F, F/M, Kidnapping, Multi, The Author Regrets Nothing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:14:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24194944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: When Tina was twelve, she was kidnapped. When she was found ten years later, she became a victim. And it's only with the help of her skeletal saviors that she turned the tides and became the victor.But demons never die that easily, do they?
Relationships: Sans/Original Undertale Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 43





	1. Darkness Calls (Begging To Be Let In)

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, here goes nothing. I'm warning you now, this is a darker story. I'm not saying there won't be fun times or plenty of fluff, but living with trauma makes life hard. Life's a cakewalk, full of challenges after all.

In a darkened room, a woman sat alone, drifting away. She had cuffs around her wrists and ankles, chains of varying lengths securing her to the wall farthest from the door. She used to have only one, but her actions caused her kidnapper to improvise. All it got her was more chains, and spiked food. 

She didn't know how long she had been in this room, cement walls and ever present darkness comforting and keeping her prisoner. She tried to time the length of her stay by her hair, which once was barely at her shoulders, now was long enough for her to sit on. If she had to guess, she'd been here for years. It only makes sense that she'd have tried to escape multiple times by now. 

She was taken at twelve years old, and she could remember that day with almost startling clarity. It was a hot humid day, and school had just been released for the summer. They had run over that year, and as such it was hot as hell. The peak for that day was a fierce 87°F, so the school decided to let out early. 

She was a walker, so she had to fight her way through the intense heat just to get home to the cool ac. She was sweaty and tired, and probably already getting a sunburn when she split from her friends to walk the last stretch home. 

Turning onto her street, she was immediately grateful for the shade the trees provided. She walked home a little faster, and let out a whoosh of air in relief at the sight of the modest two story house she lived in with her family. Hopping up to her door, she took off her bag and couldn't find her keys. She searched her bag, she searched her pockets, then her bag again, dumping it out onto the stone step to see if it was caught between her folders or anything, but it wasn't. Trying the handle she sighed when she found it was indeed locked. 

She felt all her energy and excitement leave her in a breath of air and she sat on the step. She thought for a minute but then went to the side yard and tried the gate door. It was locked too. Just as she was about to set up shop and wait for her mother to come home, an ice cream truck started rumbling down the street, cheery music playing out of the speaker atop the van. She pulled her unused lunch money out, and set off to intercept the vehicle of delicious sugary goodness. 

The driver parked and opened the back window, smiling at her standing there. "Hello there little miss, what can I get ya?" 

"Hello mr ice cream man, can I get the spongebob one?" She put the money on the makeshift counter and he took it, then pulled out the ice cream shaped in the image of her favorite cartoon character. She thanked the man politely and went to walk away, letting the other kids in line have a turn. 

She sat back on her stoop and enjoyed the cold treat, eating it too fast to even really taste it. After she finished demolishing the character, she checked her watch, it was about noon. She knew her mom would be the first one home at about five, so she settled down on the stoop, quickly falling asleep. 

It would've been all well and good, if she had woken up on that same stoop to her mother's jostling, but the fact of the matter was that she didn't. She had actually woken up in a cold metal coffin, and the rest, as they say, is history. 

She guessed that it must've been years since she was taken, her hair was pretty long after all, and she knew the random fact about hair growing half a foot each year. By that estimate, and the fact that she was much bigger than before, she guessed that it'd been years. 

She had tried to get her captor to tell her the day, or even the year, but he seemed to get a sick twisted satisfaction as he withheld all knowledge of the outside world from her. She hated him, but she also came to expect his visits. No matter how long he was gone, no matter what he did to her, she wasn't alone, and she would take everything he threw at her, no matter what, as long as she didn't have to waste away alone in the darkness. 

Recently she had been getting more bratty, pushing her captor's buttons and making trouble. She was just sick of living like this. That's why, when the door started opening and she was blinded by the light, she kept her eyes open, even as it hurt. 

She opened her mouth to start ticking him off, it was always a slow process, the man had patience for miles, and she hadn't found the exact button to push that threw him into a rage yet. Though something wasn't right. 

She heard a horrified gasp and it confused the hell outta her. She blinked hard, trying to get her vision to clear faster, it was always the worst when light came suddenly back. Her head started pounding and her head lolled to the side. 

"hey, are you okay? what happened?" 

She hissed and covered her ears. "Shhhh, too loud." She knew she wasn't talking to her captor, he would've just started speaking louder to cause her more pain. She didn't know how long this period of darkness had stretched, but it sure felt like a long time. 

When the stranger spoke again he was speaking much softer, enough that she could take her hands from her ears to listen. "shit, sorry. are you okay? what's your name?" 

The woman opened her mouth to answer, but found that she had forgotten. "I don't know? I mean… I think I had one? But now… I-I don't know." She creeped her eyes open and let them adjust to the light, staring at the corner to diminish the sharp brightness. 

"well, what have you been called this whole time?" The voice was deep and soft, gentle in a way she's sure she'd never heard before. 

"Subject A. I had a number too, but he stopped using it after a while." The woman looked over to the doorway, and stopped to stare at the skeleton who stood there. 

He was tall, well, taller than her at least, but she didn't know how tall that even was exactly. He had on a blue jacket over a white shirt, black basketball shorts with two white stripes on either side, along with socks and pink bunny slippers. He was also wide, with large thick bones. 

"well, i can't call you that, so why don't you pick a name for yourself?" He stepped a bit closer and sat down in front of the woman. She couldn't decide if she wanted him to leave right then, or if she wanted to give into her sudden inexplicable urge to crawl into his lap and stay there. 

This close she could see that there were little white dots that tracked where his eyes went, dots that were currently focused on her cuffs and chains. ".... I like Tina?" 

His lights flashed over to her face and scanned it, before he gave a soft and sad smile. "it's okay to think about it some more, you don't need to just settle on whatever first popped into your head." 

The woman nodded and thought for a while longer, silently watching as the skeleton took her hand and held it gently in two of his. He ran his phalanges over the dull piece of metal, ringering the keyhole in thought. "I like Tina." This time she said it with finality, and he seemed to believe her. 

He nodded, eyes still on the cuff, but was cut off by a loud banging. The woman, now Tina, jumped back, covering her ears and tucking herself into the nearest corner. "hey vanilla! boss sent me down here too…' the other voice cut off, silent for a minute before a deadly, 'what. the fuck." split the air. Tina peaked up and caught a glimpse of the other skeleton, eye-sockets like voids, the darkness seeing to consume the light. 

Tina flinched back into the wall, clenching her eyes shut. "oh, doll, i'm sorry. i really didn't mean ta scare ya. i won't hurt ya, promise." 

The new skeleton walked up and crouched down next to the first, extending his pinky to her. She took her hands away from her ears and reached out, pushing him on his coccyx. He was stunned for a moment before he smiled, sharp teeth pulled into a surprisingly soft grin. Tina tucked herself back into the wall, a little afraid of the dark clothed doppelganger's retribution. 

The sharp skeleton just decided to cross his legs and stick his pinky finger out again. "It's alright, even if i get angry, even if you actively try to push me off, i promise i won't hurt ya." After staring at the surprisingly kind skeleton, she reached out with her pinky finger and linked it with his. 

"see, not so bad after all. would you mind if i got those chains off ya?" Tina nodded and pushed her left ankle towards him. She watched as he gently took her leg into his lap, pulling a couple of needle sharp bones out of nowhere and proceeded to pick the lock. 

Tina turned to look at the first skele who was tapping away on a thin rectangle, the same kinda thing her captor used a couple of times. He looked up and caught her eye, then smiled at her gently. "What is that?" Tina inquired softly, barely noticing the slight fumble from the skeleton working on her ankle cuff, but seeing the way the grin fell a little on the first. 

"it's a phone. well a cell phone to be precise.' She cocked her head to the side, trying to remember what the cell phones looked like when she got kidnapped, but only the one rich kid in her class had one, and that memory was blurry at best. 'here, try it out. i'm sure i have some mobile games you can try out." He handed the phone out to her, and she took it gently on her own hands. 

She started clicking all the buttons, finding that two different ones lit up the screen. Then following the instructions at the bottom, she put a finger to the screen and dragged it up. There was a soft little clicking sound, and the screen changed. 

She started clicking random things and swiping around. She was having so much fun. She was, that is until she dragged down from the top and saw the date. 

May 7th 2019

She promptly dropped the phone, missing her lap and letting it clatter to the floor. Both skeletons looked up in alarm, the clicking of the cuff as it released her going unheeded. 

"hey doll? what's the matter?" The edgy one asked her, rubbing her newly freed ankle. It was soothing to feel the smooth warm bone on her naked ankle, even if it was an odd sensation. 

"I've been here for ten years." Her voice came out dull, and she felt herself going in and out. She let her head thud against the scratchy cement wall, mind blanking out and everything going numb. Her hands fell limp and she effectively shut down. 

She watched everything, but processed nothing as the skeletons talked, the cuffs came off and her limp body was carried up the stairs.


	2. Demons Crawl (And Pick Apart Your Sins)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone just needs a bit of safety.

Tina must've fallen asleep, because when she woke up it was dawn, though she wasn't quite sure when she was let out. Well, either way she was awake now. 

Laying still on the couch, she rubbed her wrists where the cuffs once were, feeling naked without them. She let her mind drift, as she started to really process what she had found out. 

Ten years. She had figured that it had to have been a few years, but she never thought that she was trapped for a whole decade. Her vision went out of focus as she tried to think of everything she missed, everything she had to catch up on now. 

That train of thought brought her to the realization that she missed ten of her little sister's birthdays. She missed seeing her little sister grow up, her little sister probably thought she was dead. And her mom, her mom. She missed her mom, she missed her so badly. 

Tears trickled down Tina's face then her breath caught on a sob, and she was gone. She sobbed as quiet as she could for what felt like hours. It was the first time in a long time that she cried for herself. 

She was startled out of her bitter weeping by a hand on her hair. She jerked back violently into the couch, clasping a hand over her opposite wrist and tugging them both close into her chest, her legs coming up as well to curl her into a ball. She looked up at the person who pet her, seeing another doppelganger to the first two, but this one dressed in blue with a bandana tied around his neck. "Oh I'm sorry for startling you Tina. I just thought you might like some comfort, from a friend." 

Tina looked up into the soft lights of this much shorter counterpart, and found she didn't have anything to worry about. She nodded softly, and uncurled a bit. The new skeleton smiled gently at her and sat on the cushion by her head. He slowly reached out and stroked her hair, not minding when she flinched back, continuing to stroke until she relaxed. 

"I'm Blue by the way. I don't think the others got to introduce themselves properly, so I'll be the first. The ones you met yesterday are called Sans and Red, but there's also Skull, who looks like a bigger Sans, and Black who looks like an emo version of me. My brother is called Swap, while Red's brother is called Edge and ---" Blue prattle on to fill the silence, hoping that his voice could soothe her. 

"But aren't you all the same?" Tina tilted her head back to look at him, at least she assumed they were male from the depth of their voices. 

"Huh, what do you mean?" Blue locked eyes with her, searching for something in her gaze.

"Well, you all look the same, and when that happens to humans we call them doppelgangers, I think. So you are all doppelgangers of each other." Tina was curious, most humans only had one doppel at most, and this one had at least two. 

Blue's smile tightened before it dropped altogether. "Yes, that is true. In fact we are all the same, just alternate universe versions of each other." 

Tina was puzzled, but Blue just resumed petting her and told her to forget it, that he'd explain someday. Tina got very relaxed, almost to the point of sleeping when someone started stopping around, heavy footfalls causing her to flinch back again. 

"Good morning Edge. Would you please stop stomping your feet? You're scaring the human." Tina looked up at blue who was turned to look over the back of the couch at someone she couldn't see. She sat up and peaked over the back too. 

"Ah… good morning human. How did you sleep?" He walked over, more conscious of the noise he made while walking, and rounded the couch, squatting in front of her.

He was tall, taller than most of the skeletons she'd seen so far, and dressed in some sort of placket leather and combat boots. He had two scars over his left eye socket, and a mouth full of sharp teeth. 

"I didn't know I even fell asleep.' Tina admitted quietly. 'It's been a long time since I slept soundly." 

Edge nodded as though she just confirmed what he already thought. He reaches out as well, pausing at her unintentional flinch, before continuing to reach for her hair. He gives her a few barely there pets, then moves down and gently tugs one of her wrists to him. 

The room is quiet, save for Edge's soft humming, Blue's soft taping as he did something on the a phone like the one she saw yesterday, and the soft chirping of birds heard outside the cracked window. 

Gently Edge gave her back her wrist and stood up, leaving the room much softer than how he entered it. She watched him warily, tracing which room he went into and when he came back out. He walked back over to her with what looked like a remarkably clean toolbox, setting it on the floor next to him. 

"I figure, since you've been wearing those things, for so long; you might feel quite a bit exposed now. If you would like, I can fashion you some leather bracelets and anklets if it would make you feel better." Edge looked at her comfortingly, and patiently waited for her small nod. Blue's tapping resumed.

"Alright. May I have one of your appendages so I may measure it?" Tina nodded again, blushing at the kindness she wasn't used to. She extended her right ankle, the one that had been chained the longest. 

Edge opened the toolbox and pulled out a small first aid kit, popping that open as well and setting it on the other side. He pulled out a water bottle and a rag, opening the bottle and pouring some on the rag. He took her ankle gently and wiped it with the rag, clearing away years worth of blood and grime. 

When her foot and ankle were cleaned to his satisfaction, he took out a notebook with a pencil and a loose measuring tape. Wrapping it around her ankle he recorded what it said and noted some other things down, not that she could see what he wrote. 

Pulling out three different pieces of leather, he extended them to her. "Which one would you prefer? If you don't like any of them, I have plenty more types of fabric you can test." 

Tina took one piece of leather and wrapped it around her wrist, before putting it off to the side. It was far too soft. Taking the next bit of leather she wrapped that one around her wrist and whipped it just past Edge's face, barely managing to avoid hitting him. She shuddered; that one was too close to the feeling of metal. 

Edge took the last piece and held it out, and she finally took it, wrapping it around her wrist as well. She relaxed, this one felt right. It wasn't too soft, nor was it too hard. It was just the right amount of stuff and flexible, and… Tina felt like goldilocks. 

"This one." Edge smiled and took back the strip of black leather, putting the rest back and pulling out a spool of the leather she chose. 

"Very good. That is the highest quality of leather I own. You have very good taste." Tina blushed and tucked herself into the couch, as if the cushions could open and swallow her whole. 

Edge measured out a length of the leather and cut it, before securing a buckle to one side. He then wrapped it around her ankle, marking dots along it with a red sharpie. He took it back and punched three holes in it before placing it back on her, hooking it into the second hole so it was just a little loose. "There, how does that feel?" 

Tina rolled her foot, pulling it towards her and pushing it away, feeling a quite a bit more comfortable. "Yeah. I like it." She smiled at Edge who nodded, motioning with his hand for her to switch feet. 

While he repeated the process for her other leg, Tina fingered the leather cuff, trying desperately to link the sensation of tough, smooth leather with a feeling of tentative safety. "There, all done. May I please see your wrist?" 

Tina looked up at Edge, who sat there patiently, one hand extended and the other hand holding the cloth measuring tape. She extended her left, the other hand still tracing the anklet. He smiled at her then went back to work, fashioning another cuff for her. "How did you know?" 

Edge glanced up at her, before focusing back on his work. He took the pencil out of his mouth and put it down so he could talk. "My brother had something similar happen." 

"He was kidnapped too?" Edge glanced up at her again before looking back down and shaking his head. 

"Not exactly. We came from a part of the underground where it was really dangerous to live. We had to fight for our lives every day. I helped protect him, and one of the things I had to do was treat him like shit. Back there, if you had any kind of weakness, it was exploited against you. I couldn't have anyone hurting my brother to get to me, so I acted as if I didn't care for him. I even made him a collar to announce that fact to the whole underground.' He paused in his story and motioned for her other hand, not looking her in the eye. 'One day, he was cornered by some dog monsters, and they took his collar. He told me later that he felt naked without it now, that to him it felt like safety, and with it gone, he didn't feel safe. I made him a new one the next day." 

Tina regarded the skeleton in front of her, and seemed him safe, and kind. "Hmm. It's not such a safety thing for me, more like… it's all I've known and I've grown attached to them in a strange twisted way." Edge nodded, securing the last cuff on and letting her go. 

"I understand. You feel safer if it's familiar, like you know what to expect." Tina nodded at the large skeleton, smiling softly up at him as he packed up his kits and stood. 

"Thank you Edge." He gave her a sharp nod and a wry smile, leaving the room to put the kit


	3. You Cry (Tell Them To Run Away)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red seems to know what he's doing. I wonder why?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just can't seem to stop writing! At least this is all just the build up. :)

After Edge had given her the cuffs, Tina felt so much better. Just in time too, because the rest of the house was soon up and making plenty of noise. 

She flinched at the sounds of slamming doors, stomping feet shouts for lazybones to wake up. There was the banging pots and pans, a fire whoosh, and thudding upstairs. Eventually it got to be a steady roar, and Tina slowly stopped flinching, taking her hands from her ears and trying to settle down. 

Though without fail there was a sudden loud noise and she jumped, all the progress she'd made being erased as her heart rate spiked. Guess living in the darkness, in the silence, caused more damage than she first thought it did. 

She pressed her hands closer to her ears and tried not to cry, but it was proving to be futile as all the sudden noise overwhelmed her. Suddenly there were hands prying hers away from her ears, and replaced by what felt like earmuffs. All noise stopped and a soft gentle tune started playing, just barely audible. She relaxed, all tension leaving her in whoosh, as if it was a wave that suddenly went back out to sea. 

She touched the things over her ears, and looked up at Red who clicked the button on the side of his phone and set it in her lap. He winked at her and pointed to the kitchen, giving her a smile as he walked away in the direction he pointed. 

Tina blinked at his odd behavior, picking up the phone in her lap. When she turned on the screen she saw scrolling words with a pause, back, and forward hovering underneath it. She pushed the two little bars and all sound stopped, but that freaked her out so she hit the triangle. 

It looked like she was listening to music, Mozart if she understood it correctly. Swiping up the screen, she proceeded to play on the phone, finding access to the internet and looking up anything that was on her mind. 

Turns out that Red had put noise canceling headphones over her ears, and she missed a lot more than prom. She was reading news headlines from 2016 when a plate of food appeared between her face and the screen. She looked up to a new face; a tired looking skeleton in an orange hoodie, lollipop stick between his teeth. 

She looked down at the plate, seeing a small portion of bacon and eggs with buttered toast. She dropped the phone and took the plate with both hands. She didn't know what to do with it. Should she eat it and damn the consequences, or should she refuse and continue to starve. 

She didn't even realize she was starving until the food sat in front of her. She looked up at the skeleton, hands not moving to take the plate or to give it back. She let it hover there in the middle of them, looking awkward. Red came back into the room and looked at her sadly, walking up to her and pulling an earphone away. 

"heya doll. mind sharin?" He sat next to her and stole a bite of her bacon, placing it back on her plate and taking a bite of the toast. Then he snagged a bite of her eggs and put the fork back. She stared at him for a little while longer before pulling the plate to herself and picking up a slice of bacon. She continued to stare at him as she ate the bacon piece, the same one with a bite taken out of it. 

She stayed still for a little while before she literally couldn't resist and started eating the toast. Red smiled and replaced the earphone, picking up the remote and turning on the tv, clicking on subtitles as an afterthought. 

Tina turned to watch the tv eating her food absently. Soon enough it was gone and she felt both relieved and far more tense than before. She felt the burning need to go throw up, not wanting the toxins in her body. She never wanted to feel that week again. 

Red grabbed her hand, taking the plate and placing it on the table next to him with his other hand. She bounced in her seat, fighting between herself to leave and throw up on the off chance that there was poison in it, or stay and trust the person that took off her cuffs and let her free for the first time in a decade. 

The decision was made for her when Red pulled her into his side and put an arm around her, anchoring her to him. She fought for a little while but couldn't break his grip on her. As more time passed and she didn't experience any effects that would prove to her that it was poisoned, she gradually relaxed. 

Time started to tick by faster as she relaxed, picking back up the phone and continuing to play on it. She alternated her attention between looking things up and finding definitions for words she didn't know, and watching the tv, which was currently playing a spongebob marathon. She was comforted by the sight of something so familiar, but at the same time her mind kept drawing parallels to the day she was taken, that innocent looking spongebob ice cream. 

She knew now that it had been laced, the unmistakable feeling of grogginess after waking up from being dosed with a sedative, so familiar to her now. 

The arm around her tightened and she looked up at Red who was staring down at her, worried expression on his face. He glanced from her to the tv, changing the channel and looking back to her. 

Tina glanced at the fairly odd parents, and quickly got hooked, phone sitting still in her lax grip. She felt Red's gaze finally leave her, and she leaned into him, head landing on his clavicle. 

Soon enough the tv went black and Tina looked around disoriented. Blue stood before her a plate of spaghetti in his hands, smiling sweetly at her. 

She pushed one of the muffs off her ear, and took the plate. Red once again stole a bite of her food, and once again she stared at him for far too long, trying to determine if it was safe for her to eat. After a while she took a bite as well and soon ate the whole thing. After she was finished and Blue took the plates to go do dishes, there was a harsh banging on the door. 

Tina flinched into Red who calmly readjusted the headphone, blocking out the chaos that was Undyne's dramatic entrance.


	4. They Cry (And Beg You To Stay)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why do we have to reopen our wounds in order to let them heal?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not very graphic but please be careful. TW for this chapter.

Tina stared at the odd fish woman. She was dressed in a police uniform, which only made Tina more nervous. She didn't want to relive what she'd gone through so soon! And she certainly didn't want to leave the safety net she had found herself in. 

The lady was saying something to Red, and he started to pull away, but Tina latched onto him and wouldn't loosen her grip until he settled back down and held her again. Even then she still didn't let go. Sans came and sat next to her, pulling off the headphones and handing them back to Red. 

"hey there buddy. this is undyne, a friend of ours. she's a police officer, and she'll help you get the justice you deserve. but in order to do that, you need to tell her what happened.' Tina looked up at him terrified, kinda betrayed, and very sad. 'hey, it's okay princess. we won't leave you if you don't want us to, and she won't take you away if you don't want to go." Sans looked like he wanted to say more but restrained himself. 

"Would you mind if we recorded this conversation? So you don't have to repeat the story over and over." Undyne pulled a recording device out of her pocket and set it on the table. At Tina's hesitant nod she clicked the play and record buttons simultaneously. "Alright, would you state your name for the record?" 

Tina cleared her throat and looked at Red, Sans, then Undyne. Red gave her a patient smile, Sans grabbed her hand and squeezed and Undyne nodded. "I'm called Tina. I-I don't remember my original name, so Sans suggested I pick one because he didn't want to call me Subject A." 

Undyne nodded and pulled out a notebook to write down bits of information. "Okay, Tina then. What can you tell me about the day you went missing?" 

"I remember it was summer. It was a really hot summer day. I remember that I was excited because school had just let out for vacation, and I had just turned twelve. My parents were going to throw me a birthday party that weekend.' Undyne nodded, encouraging her to go on. Tina took a deep breath and tried to focus on the feeling of a hand rubbing her arm, and bony fingers linking with hers. 'I walked home from school and when I got to the door, I realized that I had misplaced my keys." 

Tina felt the phantom Sun beating down on her shoulders and neck, a barely there breeze ruffling the end of her ponytail. "It was really hot, so when the ice cream truck came by I decided to get some. I remember getting a spongebob shaped one, and falling asleep on the doorstep. The next thing I know, I'm in a cold metal box, and my hands are tied. I know now that the icecream was spiked with a sedative, but I didn't know any better back then. It didn't even really taste any different back then." 

"Do you know who the kidnapper was? Was it the same person who kept you locked up here?" Undyne flipped a page and paused with her pen hovering just above the page. 

"No, it wasn't the same person. I can only assume the kidnapper was the ice cream man, but I don't remember his face. When I was pulled out of the metal box he had a mask on or I was knocked out." Undyne nodded and wrote something down. 

"Can you tell me what happened next?" Tina pulled Sans' hand into her lap and started playing with his digits. 

"I think I was sold, because when I woke up again I was in the backseat of a car, laying on the floor under a blanket. The radio was playing I gotta feelin' from the black eyed peas, and he was singing along, tapping to the beat." Tina couldn't look anyone in the eye. She started sinking into her memories, vivid images flashing in front of her eyes. 

"I must've whimpered or made some sort of noise, because he turned down the music, reached behind himself and stabbed me with a needle through the blanket. The next time I woke up I was in the dark room that would end up being my room for the next ten years." 

"I fought so hard in the beginning. I broke my foot to escape the chain, and ran the second the door opened, but he caught me and beat me until I blacked out." Tina could remember the feeling of her skull cracking as he slammed her head against the concrete. 

"After that he started to do things. I was forced to… and he…" Tina trailed off, unable to even say it. She started hyperventilating, the pain of being split in half all too recent in her mind. She could still hear his disgusting noises as he used her. 

"Tina!" She snapped her gaze up to Undyne who was right in front of her, scaly hands grasping her by the shoulders. "Tina, it's alright, he's not here. You're okay, you're out." 

Tina looked at the fish woman and started to sob, falling into her chest. Undyne just held her as she cried, firm but soft. "Why don't we take a break hmm?" 

Tina nodded and tried to stop crying. She shuddered and tried to emerge from her horrible memory, but all she could do was let it go, reliving it until it was over. 

But once it was, and she was able to sit back, a mug of warm tea in her hands courtesy of Sans, who also took a sip to prove it was safe. She sat in the middle of the couch, blanket around her shoulders, far away from either of the boys, afraid that she might break down again if they were to touch her. 

"Are you calm now Tina?" Undyne had paused the recording as she cried, just now resuming it. 

"Yeah, I guess." She was numb, unfeeling of anything. She broke away from herself and let her mouth tell the story while her mind went to a safe place away from all the pain. "Anyway, if you didn't understand me before, I was trying to say that he raped me. He said that it was the best way he knew to get me to behave. And I behaved. Every time I disobeyed he'd do it again. Eventually I stopped fighting. I let him do whatever he wanted, whatever torture he had in mind that day, it was all well and good. Until he started testing how long I could go without things before I went crazy or died. I started fighting again, and he did it again until I stopped fighting. I suffered three miscarriages because of him. After that I decided I did what to die and I tried to get him to kill me, but he went the opposite way and tried nonlethal poison and torture. Then one day he stopped coming. An indeterminable amount of time later the door opened again and I was taken out of that room by these two.' Tina sipped her tea, seeing but not really registering the expressions of fury mixed with horror and sadness on the faces of the monsters. 'That's about it. Oh, it might help if I told you what I knew about him huh?"

Undyne nodded slowly, forcing herself to let go of the crushed notebook and pen, pulling another set from her back pocket. Tina continued, monotone, as if she was a robot. "He had me refer to him as Doctor Stamen, he looked to me to be about middle aged when I first arrived, he had grey hairs when I saw him last. He was kinda tall, and thin. He was white and he had dark hair and blue eyes. That's it. Huh, I guess I didn't know as much as I thought." Undyne nodded again, and put the pad and pen away before she crushed that one too. Then she grabbed the recorder and stopped it, shoving it in her other back pocket. 

"Well, I think you should be checked out by a clinician, but other than that I think it might be good for you to stay here. Unless you want to leave?" Tina shook her head blowing on her already cool tea in a mechanical motion. 

"Alright then. I trust these guys with my life, they'll take care of you.' She looked at Sans who was staring at the wall, eye lights vacant, then Red, who was gripping the armrest so hard the wood was splintering, then to the motley crew of skeletons who were listening in from various places around the house. 'I don't think I'd be able to take you away if I tried." Tina nodded and thanked Undyne who pulled Sans out the front door with her as she left. 

"you alright doll?" Red turned to her and flinched under her gaze. 

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be." Tina wasn't even able to lift her voice at the end to make it sound like the question it was supposed to be. 

"that was a lot of heavy shit you just laid out. no one would be okay after that." Tina merely shrugged, the gesture out of place when the rest of her acted like she was dead. 

"At the moment, I just don't care. It doesn't matter anyways." Red looked like he wanted to cry, but instead just pulled her into a hug, trying desperately to protect her and heal her with all he was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that was a helluva lot to unpack. It's easy to talk about the trauma when it feels like you're talking about someone else. 
> 
> Okay that's it for today. I think I need a stiff drink. Probably everyone does tbh.


	5. You Try (But It Doesn't Matter Anyway)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tina is not okay. Don't let her convince you otherwise.

Staring at the wall and losing herself in her head had been Tina's favorite pastime for a while now. She'd use it to avoid whatever things the doctor decided to do that day, but also to make her stay much faster. There was only so much you could do in a cell, alone, in the dark for hours on end. 

She got so bored that she started seeing things. Once she saw a humanoid rabbit about three inches tall sitting on a person's shoulder. It was odd to say the least. Not that that was the oddest of the things she saw, not by a long shot… but she didn't want to get into that. 

She'd usually come back to the sound of the concrete door opening and bathing her in light. Mm bathing. She could really go for a bath right about now. She was getting off track. 

"hey doll, you back now?" Tina blinked, hard. She had somehow forgotten about the skeletons that rescued her. She locked eyes with Red and nodded. He released a breath, as if she had just eased all of his worries. 

"I'm sorry." she looked back down to her lap and rubbed her new leather cuff. 

"hey, why are you sorry? you have nothing to apologize for." 

"But I left." Tina heard Red suck in a deep breath and let it out. 

"and that's okay. at least, it is for now." Tina looked up at him, a silent question in her eyes. 

"yeah, it's okay. you've been through hell, and already you were forced to relive it for undyne. sometimes you have to go somewhere else." Red tried to smile, but his teeth could only be pulled into a sharp grimace.

Tina reached out a hand and put it on his cheek, shocking his eye-sockets back open. He looked from her hand to her and gave a bitter chuckle. "hey, i'm supposed to be comforting you y'know?" 

He reached up and took her hand, pulling it away from his face and onto his leg. "Why aren't you mad at me?" 

Red looked down at his hand holding hers and brought his other hand to cradle it in both of his. "why would I be mad at you? none of what happened was your fault." 

Why did it seem like he was talking to the both of them? "But I bought the ice cream, and I lost my keys. None of this would've happened if I hadn't done that." 

"maybe not to you, but it probably would've happened anyway. you aren't the cause of what happened to you, you were just the unfortunate victim. don't blame yourself for what happened, it was never your fault." Tears welled up in Tina's eyes, and she wondered distantly if she would ever stop now that she'd started. 

"I'm sorry." Red pulled her into a hug and she clung to him, ignoring the part of her that screamed to push him away. 

"hey now, i told you to stop that. what could you be sorry for now?" Red slowly rubbed her back, comforting her in a way she didn't think he knew. 

"You've been so nice to me, and I don't deserve it, but I want it. Is that selfish?" 

She felt Red shake his head above hers. "no. it's not selfish to want what you deserve." 

"I don't w-wanna le-leave you!" Tina cried, sobbing into his turtleneck. 

"then don't. if you ever start to leave again, we can help you come back. does that sound good to you?" Tina nodded her head emphatically, having to pull away just slightly so her nose didn't get rug burn. 

"alright. i'll make you a promise, and i don't make promises lightly. i swear to you, wherever you go, wherever you run, i'll find you, okay?" Somehow, the words of the promise felt like he was swearing his oath to a queen. He was deadly serious, and Tina could feel that he meant it with every fiber of his being. She decided she could try to trust him. She nodded again, softly, her tears still streaming down her face. 

He started to hum some foriegn tune and she decided to rest, the day having taken more out of her than she expected. While she slept, she dreamt of a peaceful life where she hadn't been kidnapped, and the skeletons had moved into a lodge that her family owned. She dreamt that her biggest problems were an overprotective mom, a runt of a sister, and juggling the affections of ten skeleton monsters. 

She was startled awake by the slamming of the front door, sitting up to see a skeleton who looked like a cross between Blue and Edge march into the room. She sat up from where she was laid on the couch, and locked eyes with him. 

She froze at the same time he did, flinching away when he abruptly broke eye contact and started marching up to her. The sound of footfalls softened and she opened her eyes to see the new skeleton stopped a few feet away. "HE--' he cut himself off at her flinch and cleared his throat. 'Hello human, what are you doing here?" 

"I'm… not sure. Red and Sans rescued me, and kept me here, so here I am." The skeleton looked her up and down and extended a hand to her. 

"You may call me Black. You're absolutely filthy… would you like a shower?" Tina perked up at the offer, and hesitantly grabbed his hand. 

"I'm called Tina." He quirked a brow bone at her and pulled her up off the couch. 

"Not your name then?" Tina held up her free hand and shook it side to side in a so-so motion. 

"I don't remember my real name. I was referred to as Subject A, but Sans told me I should pick out a name for myself, cuz he didn't want to call me that." Black hummed to himself and led her to the downstairs bathroom. 

"Well, that is understandable, Subject A is a horrible name. I much prefer Tina." 

"Me too actually." Black nudged her into the bathroom, hand on her lower back. 

"Go ahead and shower, take as long as you need. The spare towels are in the cabinet, and I'll be back with something for you to wear." Tina nodded and mumbled out a quick thank you as Black shut the door. 

Turning around, Tina finally saw herself for the first time in ten years. She had grown taller, obviously, but she also lost all the fat from her youth, and then some. She was disgusted by her skin and bones frame, hair ridiculously long and dirty, coming to mid thigh on her. She hated it. Her cheeks were sunken in and it looked like her cold blue eyes were on the verge of popping out. 

The once white summer dress she had gotten for the year was torn and stained red, tainted a graying brown from rolling around in filth for a year. Her body was riddled with scars, and she couldn't find any that she didn't despise. 

She frantically searched through the bathroom cabinets coming across some scissors under the sink. She grabbed all her hair into one hand, and hacked away with the scissors in the other hand. It was difficult, and she had to stop to catch her breath more than once, but when she let go, the dirty hair just barely brushed her shoulders, jagged as it was. 

She suddenly felt lighter, like in some way, the past ten years hadn't happened. She felt for a moment finally free from her hell, but then she looked at her disgusting frame, riddled with scars, and it all crashed back down on her. She physically staggered, crashing back into the towel cabinet and starting to sob. 

There was a knock on the door and Black called out through it. Frantically, she grappled for the scissors and used them to slice into her arm. She wanted to die, she couldn't take it anymore. Black opened the door, took one look at her and sighed. He called out for Blue and entered the bathroom. He took the scissors from her far too easily for her liking, restraining her with one hand. He grabbed a towel and pressed it against her fresh cuts, slowing the blood flow. 

She continued to thrash and fight, bite and kick, stopping only when her body felt far too heavy to move and she lost all her energy. All throughout it Black wasn't phased, only focusing on caring for her cuts where she was bleeding. 

Tina decided she couldn't handle it and drifted away from herself, deciding to let not-her handle it. She stopped fighting, stopped feeling, stopped everything. She barely registered Blue coming in, followed by Red. She barely registered being moved back to the couch, didn't listen to the shouting match from the kitchen, didn't answer any questions as she was set on a gurney and strapped down. 

The only things she really registered were two fiery red pinpricks and warm boney fingers brushing her hair away from her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We all knew she needed to go to the hospital, the rest only so much a ragtag group of skeletons could do. Thank God for Black coming in with that rational thinking.


End file.
